Category: Music

Editing in the Cloud: The Killer Feature that Gives Google Music the Cloud Advantage

googlemusicI was pretty excited when Amazon beat the crowd that matters to the cloud with the Amazon Cloud Player.  Since I buy all of my music from Amazon, it is convenient to have my music purchases sent directly to my Amazon cloud, for immediate playing, and downloading only as needed.

I was so excited, in fact, that I bought a bunch more cloud space and began the arduous process of moving my huge music collection to the cloud.

But there was a little problem.  Like many audiophiles, I am pretty anal where my music tags and artwork are concerned.  If I see a mislabeled genre or mixed up album cover, I need- who am I kidding, I simply must have- a way to quickly fix it.

On the Amazon cloud, that’s not all that easy to do.  Amazon doesn’t (yet) provide a way to edit song or album details from the cloud.  You have to download the songs you want to fix, delete them from the cloud, fix them locally and then re-upload them.

That’s sort of a drag.  Figuratively and literally.  I also find Amazon’s music uploader less than elegant and not very reliable.

With Google’s recent introduction of Google Music, there is a new competitor in the cloud.  While it’s early,  I think I slightly prefer Google’s look and feel.

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But probably not enough to outweigh the ability to send my Amazon purchases directly to my Amazon cloud.  However, I quickly discovered a feature that tips the scale decidedly in favor of Google.  It’s much more appealing than Lady Gaga.  It’s the ability to edit from the cloud!

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Sweet!

At the end of the day, the process to get my new music from Amazon to Google Music is pretty simple, and automated.  I configured Google Music Manager to monitor my Amazon download folder, and automatically upload whatever shows up there.

I agree that Apple may one day deliver a cloud-dominating knock-out punch, but that may take some time, as you can never count out the innovation adverse music industry (as an aside, I get a few dollars from BMI every quarter or so, and I still can’t abide the obstacles these organizations keep tossing on the path to access).  They may be trying to protect someone’s income, but I’m not certain it’s the songwriters’.

In any event, I’m pretty excited about Google Music.  The 20,000 song limit will prevent me from moving all of my music there (at least until cheap extra storage becomes available, like Amazon offers).

But as of now, it’s leading the race to become my default music manager.  Stay tuned, however, because the race is just beginning.

Jesse McReynolds Does the Grateful Dead (and Very, Very Well)

I was clicking around Amazon today, working on my music migration to the beautiful new Amazon Cloud (more on that later) and I came upon a music recommendation for Jesse McReynolds’ newish record, Songs of the Grateful Dead .  I listened to a few clips, bought it, and was completely blown away.

As is my custom, I then clicked over to YouTube to see if I could find some live versions, and boy did I hit the jackpot.  Here’s some HD footage of Jesse’s appearance just last week at  Springfest 2011, in Live Oak, Florida.  This is absolutely some of the best music you will ever hear.

After you soak up this goodness, run over to Amazon, and buy this record.

Songs Of The Grateful Dead

Jesse McReynolds – Songs of the Grateful Dead.

Wow!

And if you’re a fan of good music, you have to subscribe to dschram1’s YouTube Channel.  It’s the best music channel I’ve seen on YouTube.

GoodSongs: Robyn Ludwick’s Out of These Blues

Robyn Ludwick blew me away a few weeks ago, when I saw some of her concert footage  on Youtube.  To say that I dig her is a massive understatement.

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Today I received a pre-release copy of her forthcoming record, Out of These Blues, which will make the world a better place on April 19, 2011.

The short answer is that this is the first must-buy record I’ve heard this year.  My biggest gripe about most records in these digital days is the uneven quality of the songs.  You generally get a couple of great ones, some decent ones and some filler.  That’s not a problem on this record – there’s not an average song on it.  They run from excellent to very, very good.

Listen to Hollywood, and you’ll see what I mean.

“She left me for Hollywood.  Oh, don’t you know it feels so good.  In Hollywood.”  Awesome.

The title track has a timeless vibe, that would’ve been at home in the glory days of MP3.Com, when I discovered many of the alt. country bands I still listen to, or during the Gram Parsons-nurtured infancy of country rock.  The best music, of any genre, has rural roots, but a harder, darker edge- like someone who came to country music via Macon, Georgia as opposed to Nashville.  This record sounds like that.

New Orleans is a great song, with some excellent country noir lyrics.  Cajun country, Springsteen’s Rosalita, Austin style.

Steady has a bluesy organ vibe that just boils with an early Lucinda-like passion.  I’d love to hear Robyn cover Lucinda’s Side of the Road.  Actually, she can sing whatever she wants.  As long as I get a copy.

Fight Song may be the best alt. country torch song ever recorded.  I Am may be the second best one.   Can’t Go Back channels Guitar Town era Steve Earle. A fiddle led, danceable number that needs to be heard at Gruene Hall, after a day on the river.

Let’s recap.  We have alt. country, rock, blues and country torch.  I love the way this record so easily and effectively moves from country to blues to rock.  The arrangements are excellent.

This one will clearly be a contender for my 2011 record of the year.  Count the days, friends.  April 19 will be here before you know it.  Wake up early that morning and buy this record.

In the meantime, Robyn has two records you can buy at Amazon right now.  For So Long and Too Much Desire.  I bought them both, and they are also great records.

GoodSongs: Johnny Thunder

It’s sad and amazing how much really great music has faded out of print and into oblivion, as compared to all the crap that passes for new music these days.  Crap that will never fade into oblivion because it is born in digital format.

Need an example?

Johnny Thunder replaced Ben E. King as the lead singer for the Drifters, before he began his solo career.  This hard to find gem, a Tommy James cover,  is from a single (B-Side-Verbal Expressions of T.V.).

I can’t find any of Johnny’s early solo records anywhere (other than occasionally on eBay).  If you find them for sale at anything close to a reasonable price, let me know.

Some of Johnny’s later music can be purchased via his website, linked above.

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Johnny Thunder – I’m Alive.

This is one awesome performance of a rocking song.

There’s an interesting interview with Johnny here.

Artist Notice: I am a musician and songwriter.  I do these posts to draw attention to great music in the hopes that our readers will buy these records and allow these artists to continue making great music.  If you don’t want us to feature your music, let us know and we’ll take the song file down immediately.  On the other hand, if you are an artist who does the sort of music we feature, let us know.  We’re always looking for new artists to feature.

It is Mathematically Impossible for Me to Care Less Whether Spotify Launches in the U.S.

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I just want everyone to stop talking about it.

Nothing amuses me any more than when someone who knows someone who has a friend who knows people at Spotify cuts a fart and the entire world goes nuts claiming that the glorious sound of flatulence  means, for the thousandth time, that Spotify is just about to launch in the United States.

Look, I’m a tech blogger, a music blogger, a songwriter and musician and a huge music fan.  So demographically speaking, no one should be more excited about Spotify than me.  But, after all the half-starts, bluster and overreactions, I could not possibly express how little I care if Spotify launches or doesn’t or if the whole thing is some long con by the Onion.

I just don’t care.  Either launch or don’t.  But please, please, please…stop talking about launching.  Really.

But today, there was more.  A possibly off-hand comment by an anonymous music industry “executive” (what does that even mean in 2011) causes the entire internet to grab its collective headphone and proclaim that this, finally, may be the day the music is reincarnated.  It was a virtual conga line, over nothing more than the latest unattributed hint that maybe one day Spotify will actually be available on this side of the Atlantic.

For what it’s worth (and I hate to talk about Spotify in the US as if it’s anything more than  vaperware), I don’t think it’s too late.  Pandora’s six skips an hour limit is killing me (mainly because on connected DVD players, at least, it seems to be per hour of playing time, as opposed to an hour of real time).  I love Slacker’s caching and unlimited skips, but the mix I get with Slacker isn’t as good as on Pandora.  I’d rather yank out my ear drums with rusty pliers than use Rhapsody, and I don’t know what MOG is.

Spotify could be huge.  If it ever happens.

Until then, can we all shut up about it?

Could Slacker Radio Unseat Pandora as the King of Internet Music?

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For the Love of Pandora

I have been a loyal and devoted paid user of Pandora Radio since it was first available back in 2005.  I use it almost every day, in one form or another.  In fact, I may even buy a new truck when it becomes available in-dash, just so I can get my alternative country music fix without having to suffer through the unbearable Mojo Nixon.

While Pandora’s Music Genome has pretty accurately mapped my musical tastes, Pandora is not perfect.  The biggest problem by far is that, thanks no doubt to the idiotic music label cartel, you can only skip 6 songs an hour, even if you’re a paid user.  Even worse, that hour seems to be of playing time, not just of the passage of actual time.  I use Pandora almost every night for the last part of my workout (more on this when I start my “Nerd on the Run” series later this month).  Often, I’ll try to skip a song for the first time that night, only to get the 6 song limitation message- even though it’s been over 20 hours of real time since I last skipped a song.  This is a horrible drawback to an otherwise awesome service.

The Once and Slacker King

Nothing is as good for consumers as choice.  I tried Slacker Radio a couple of years ago.   Even then, it had unlimited skipping for paid users.  I liked Slacker Radio, but I eventually went back to Pandora and stopped using Slacker altogether.

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It looks like that may change.

Today I read that Slacker Radio is about to release an on-demand streaming plan, called Slacker Premium Radio, and a related iPad app.  This app will reportedly give you on-demand access to Slacker’s entire song library and playlists.  This feature will work on the web, and with lots of mobile devices, including  iPhones, iPads, Androids and BlackBerries.

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With my renewed interest in Slacker Radio, I listened briefly to my classic rock station, Kent’s Vinyl, and The Rancho Room, my alternative country station.  I heard some good stuff, including excellent but obscure songs by Old Crow Medicine Show, Luna and the Scud Mountain Boys.  I also heard some ads, which is a no-go for me.  If I start using Slacker again, I will immediately buy a subscription.  Premium subscriptions currently cost $48 a year.  That’s a little more than Pandora’s $36, but it gives you both unlimited skipping and mobile station caching- the ability to cache your stations for offline play.

Web of Confusion

One thing Slacker badly needs to do better is explain the differences between their current and forthcoming offerings.  It seems there has been some manner of on demand streaming available since late 2008, under the same name: Slacker Radio Premium.  It sounds good, until you read this cautionary note: “Saved songs are based on licenses, not all songs are savable to your Slacker Library or Slacker Portable Radio Players.”

The most important question to ask when you hear the phrase “on-demand streaming” is “of what?”  The biggest issue with these services is their ability to provide access to the major label catalogs.  I assume this new service will be a meaningful expansion of the existing premium service, but we won’t know, well, until they tell us. Notwithstanding the web of confusion currently surrounding Slacker’s new service, I’m definitely interested and on the lookout for details.

Pandora’s Device Advantage

Hopefully this flurry of life by Slacker Radio will spur Pandora to make some significant improvements to its service, including unlimited song skipping.  Pandora is not without weapons in the battle for our ears.  It has a much bigger brand.  More importantly, it has made its way onto just about every online media box or service this side of Apple TV (bad call by Apple that will eventually make me all Boxee all the time).  Every newish TV and DVD player in my entire house will play Pandora.  As will a couple of my audio receivers.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen Slacker Radio on any of them.  To reach the top of the hill, Slacker will need to find its way onto more devices.

I know, for example, that it is much easier to listen to Pandora in my home gym, via my DVD player, than it would be to access Slacker Radio.  When I finish a DVD, it’s a two click process to bring up Pandora.  I would have to get off the treadmill and change all sorts of settings to get to Slacker Radio.

Either way, competition is good for us.  So let’s rock on.

GoodSongs: Sharon Van Etten

Now that Mojo Nixon has made XM-12 completely unlistenable, I’ve been spending more time on some other XM stations while I wait for the glorious day that Pandora comes to my truck’s audio system.  Doing so has led me to some great music discoveries.

My latest is Sharon Van Etten.  The song that first blew me away is Save Yourself, from her new record Epic (Purchase @ Amazon).  Whatever my musical genome is, this song fits it perfectly.  It’s like a delightful combination of vintage Lucinda, Hockey Skates and Mazzy Star, with a beautiful alt. country arrangement.

Four of the other six songs on Epic are equally as strong.  A Crime is not as country-ish, but it has a strong acoustic guitar track behind some good lyrics.  Very Kathleen Edwards (which is high praise in these parts).  Don’t Do It is probably my favorite song on the record.  It has that perfectly wistful Gulf Shores vibe.  I’d love to hear some duets between Sharon and Bonnie Prince Billy.  One Day is also excellent and would be right at home on a good Ryan Adams record.  Love More is a fine end (hampered only by a distracting accordianish track)  to a short, but very good, record.

I just read that Sharon played here in Houston last month.  Sorry I missed that.  I’ll be there next time.

Good stuff.  Highly recommended.

Artist Notice: I am a musician and songwriter.  I do these posts to draw attention to great music in the hopes that our readers will buy these records and allow these artists to continue making great music.  If you don’t want us to feature your music, let us know and we’ll take the song file down immediately.  On the other hand, if you are an artist who does the sort of music we feature, let us know.  We’re always looking for new artists to feature.